Effectiveness of Istiku in Teaching Mtb-Mle 1 to the Pupils of Mmsu-Les

This study aimed to understand the effectiveness of the use of puppets in teaching Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE 1) to the pupils of Mariano Marcos State University- Laboratory Elementary School (MMSU-LES), by studying its usefulness in the familiarization of words. It examined how well the pupils recognize Iluko words and their meaning through performing the model. It analyzed the meaning conveyed and the words which are presented by the movement and acting of the puppet and actors throughout the performance. This study employed the experimental research design to examine the work of The Puppeteer (Teacher) within the context of the teaching and learning process. The challenge was to analyze The Puppeteer’s performances using the product-oriented method which is a contributory factor in opening the minds of the learners in grasping different Ilu- ko words in the dialogues during the whole puppet presentation. Product oriented analysis deals with the performance as a finished aesthetic product. With this study, the researcher was able to execute the model to the target clienteles during their MTB-MLE 1 classes. As a result, the model gained a positive evaluation from the cooperating school and agreed its usefulness in teaching the subject. In addition, the respondents assessed the product for recommendation. On the part of the learners, they were able to distinguish different Iluko words and differentiate it from parts of speech whether they were used as an article, noun, verb, and adjective and simple adverb, preposition and conjunction. As part of the assess- ment, they were capable to use several Iluko words in their own sentences. This implied that the use of ISTIKU Model was effective in teaching MTB-MLE to the grade one pupils.


INTRODUCTION
Puppetry is a very old, traditional form of art that is used in many cultures. Puppets have united people of the world through a language unique to puppetry, consisting of more than words. It is a language that conveys feelings, ideals, and passions with a combination of gestures and words. Play therapists have used puppets successfully as a tool to encourage children to express their feelings, and even to change their behaviors (Mcmahon & Tunk, 2018). Use of puppets makes risk-taking feel a bit safer for children. Puppetry also has great potential for use by teachers in elementary school classrooms. Puppetry can help to improve communication skills, overcome language barriers, and teach self-control. Young children can usually accept puppets as non-threatening, sympathetic friends. The addition of a puppet to a child's world can positively influence them to become more comfortable with and open up to their world. Puppets can become an integral part of the classroom environment. They can be used to increase dialogue, modify inappropriate behavior [as children desire to please the puppet by following his/ her/its request, manage the classroom, or add an element of play to lessons. While many individuals have made observations about the great communication and learning possibilities that the use of puppets has to offer to our knowledge, there has been no quantitative research conducted to explore the topic. Therefore, we decided to conduct much-needed research on the effectiveness of puppetry as a teaching tool in the familiarization of words in the Mother Tongue. We focused the study on the relations between the use of puppetry in the classroom, student involvement, and the degree of familiarization of words by the pupils during the teaching-learning process.

Statement of the Problem
This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of the "ISTIKU" in teaching MTB-MLE 1. Specifically, it sought answers to the following questions: 1. What is the level of performance of the experimental group and the control group in the pretest?
1.1 Is there a significant difference between the pretest mean scores of the experimental and control groups? 2. What is the level of performance of the experimental group and the control group in the posttest?
3. How effective are the two methods in teaching the Mother Tongue Based-Multilingual Education?
3.1 Is there a significant difference between the pretest and the posttest mean scores of the pupils in the experimental group?
3.2 Is there a significant difference between the pretest and the posttest mean scores of the pupils in the control group?
3.3 Is there a significant difference between the posttest mean scores of the experimental and control groups?

Scope and Delimitation
This study focused on the determination of the effectiveness of "ISTIKU" in teaching MTB-MLE 1. The effectiveness was delimited to the mean score gain of the pupils in the posttest scores compared to their pretest scores. The lessons were delimited to the topics on parts of speech, vocabulary building, basic sentence construction and story comprehension under the elementary curriculum and were based on the MTB-MLE Guidebook for grade school teachers. The performance of the pupils was delimited to their scores in the pretest and posttest. The different stories that were used and reflected on the actual intervention were contents of the MTB-MLE Primer as provided by the Department of Education-Regional Office to grade school teachers who are teaching the subject which has the very purpose of strengthening the Iluko Language as a medium of instruction and learning in the curriculum.

Definition of Terms
For a better understanding of this research, the following terms are defined based on how they are used in the study. Mother Tongue Based-Multilingual Education. The term refers to the incorporation of the Iluko Language (the third widely-spoken language in the Philippines) as a subject in the education curriculum. Ilocano. This refers to the language first-spoken (L1) in the locale of the study. Puppet. This refers to the material utilized during the actual interventions of the study. Puppeteer. This refers to the person manipulating the puppets in the puppet show. ISTIKU, "Istoriak, ikutik" (a creative Ilocano term for Puppet show). This refers to the material as a teachinglearning tool in the study. This was used as an instrument in the experimental group. Subjects. The term refers to the pupils in Grade Five at the Mariano Marcos State University-Laboratory Elementary School, Laoag City. Pretest. This refers to the teacher-made test in determining the pupils' level of performance in understanding Ilocano words before the utilization of the ISTIKU (The Puppet Show). Posttest. This refers to the teacher-made test in determining the pupils' level of performance in understanding Ilocano words after the implementation of the ISTIKU (The Puppet Show).

LITERATURE REVIEW
Learning theories observe and define learning in different ways. Learning theories give a theoretical model of a human's learning process. This research is anchored on Bruner's Three Major Classes of Knowing. Bruner identified three major classes of knowing: iconic, enactive, and symbolic. Iconic was linked to the ways of knowing central to the visual and spatial arts; enactive knowing framed the wisdom of movement, kinesthetic action, and dance; and symbolically represented the realm of reason and deductive logic (Berk & Trieber, 2021). Schools have depended primarily on the symbolic and have measured intelligence in terms of achievement in this realm. Bruner was not strongly supported at the time of this revelation, but later maintained that aesthetics, in his view, offer a wholly different dimension because it is the inherent expression of nature's plan. By approaching the connectedness of aesthetics, Bateson felt that one could sense the unity of nature and the human mind (Lucas and Corpuz, 2007) Another theoretical framework for this approach lies in the theory of the left and right brain hemispheres which argues that the simultaneous application of both hemispheres of our brain significantly increases our brain function efficiency. Though this theory has not been fully approved by neuroscientific studies, it has influenced many changes in education. The result is: listening to music while solving some intellectual assignments, writing mathematical tasks in colors, ccoloristic illustrations in study books, but also the use of storytelling and puppetry in the classroom who takes the results of modern neuroscientific studies as a starting point for his pedagogical efforts, says that a neuroscientist would tell us to stir the appropriate emotions in the process of learning by using all possible means (Bose, 2003). Hereby, emotions should be used as a part of learning and not as a supplement. The use of music, game, drama, storytelling, but also all sorts of other activities strongly stir emotions. Theoretical framework can be also found in the humanistic theory which asserts that the man is a creative being, a being of imagination who realizes himself/herself as a potential human being, but who, through stories and art as special forms of freedom, anticipates the changes. A subversive role in stories and art as they do not only speak of what is happening but, to a far greater extent, of what might be. In a popular vein, puppets are widely recognized for their beneficial influence on learning and social development. They exert a powerful influence on children of all ages. Puppet language is unique in its ability to help teachers and children learn from one another, grow, relate openly, to be self-confident and self-expressive. Speaking this language, a teacher can personally transform common learning barriers-oppositional behavior, negative moods, defensive attitudes-into a windfall of learning benefits and surprises. Children become more responsive and motivated. Teachers find themselves suddenly having fun, unable to wait for the next day. Teachers who keep themselves and their emotions at arm's distance in the classroom are suddenly enthralled by the impact of puppets and their children's response to them. Puppets call up in teachers and children something spiritual and vital to a learning process struggling to rise above itself. Teaching should be adapted to the learners. Thus the teacher should be responsible for designing instruction that suits best to the learners. Designing puppets for teaching has been a trend for ages because the puppet can become anyone or anything he or she wants. Maybe even a sibling, teacher, or pet. It does not really matter because the world children create with puppets is entirely their own, a world without boundaries that they can freely explore. When used in the classroom, these puppets can help boost creativity and stimulate kids' imaginations, from the preschool age up to early teen years. The innate interactivity draws children in and encourages them to be actively involved in the learning process and share their thoughts and observations. However, the effectiveness of the learning material needs to be proven (Asthana, 2017). The activities facilitate self-learning as the materials were given to the pupils' during the course of the lessons. The pupils were able to concretize information based on what they watched. It is the learner who interacts with objects and events and thereby gains an understanding of the features held by such objects or events. As such, pupils were given opportunity to interact with activities seen and heard from the puppet show. They provided answers to questions based on activities they saw and heard. This allowed the learners to experience and find out the answers to problems related to the lessons. In this manner, their skills were developed as their involvement in the learning situation is maximized.

Research Design
This study utilized a true experimental design, specifically the pretest-posttest two-group design where two heterogeneous sections of grade one pupils of MMSU LES. One section was randomly selected the experimental group and the other as the control group.

Locale of the Study
The study was conducted at the Laboratory Elementary School of the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU-LES) located in Laoag City. MMSU-LES is known for academic excellence and for high performing pupils in provincial, regional, and national contests.

Population and Sample
The subjects of the study were the Grade One pupils of MMSU-LES. Two Grade One classes with 25 pupils in each class were considered. One class was assigned as the control group while the other was the experimental group. Each group was given a pretest and a posttest on the stories presented in the puppet show.

Research Instrument
The main instrument used in this study to gather data was the Test on Concepts constructed by the researcher to test the level of performance of the pupils in forming science concepts. Test on Concepts. This is a 30-item multiple choice teacher-made test constructed by the researcher.. It was used as a pretest to determine the level of performance of the pupils about the different stories. The same set of test was used as a posttest.

Data-Gathering Procedure
Prior to the use of the ISTIKU, the researchers developed puppets for the teaching of the story and evaluated by teachers who were teaching Mother Tongue. The use of the ISTIKU was carried out with the experimental group of Grade One pupils of Mariano Marcos State University during the School Year 2014-2015.
A pretest was conducted first to the experimental and control group. Then, the materials were used with the experimental group while the control group was taught the same topics using the traditional lecture-discussion method. In the experimental group, the teacher showed the puppets as springboard to the lesson. In the control group the traditional lecture-discussion method was used. The teacher showed pictures to discuss the stories. After the lessons, the same test was administered as posttest, and the results were statistically compared. Comparing the posttest mean scores of the experimental and control groups, it can be deduced from the results of the t-test that the posttest mean score of pupils in the experimental group is significantly higher than that of the posttest mean score of the control group This indicates that the pupils in the experimental group having obtained the higher posttest mean score were able to develop better understanding of the use of the ISTIKU in the study than their counterparts. This implies that the use of ISTIKU in teaching MTB-MLE 1 is more effective than with the use of the traditional-lecture-discussion method. From the study in the teacher's classroom, puppets seem to have a positive impact on students' participation. Through the teacher's observations it was seen that pupils became very excited when they were able to use the puppets to learn. Over the course of the study, there was an increased participation from pupils who were less proficient. The teacher observed pupils using their prior knowledge of stories in their dialogues. One pupil who tended to be shy, was overheard at the puppet theater stating, "Idi ununana nga aldaw…" Another interesting situation that arose during observation occurred when two girls, were creating dialogue between two puppets. When the class began practicing for their puppet show, the teacher was surprised at the number of students (who usually did not volunteer to participate in discussions) who wanted to have a part in the play. The entire class took part in the preparation of the play by helping decide what direction the stories would take and what the different puppets would say and do in the play. The teacher then selected the puppeteers, trying to give less proficient students a role in the show. The final show was successful in showing the effect the use of puppets has on student confidence. Based from the given activity the following were observed. When two puppets are animatedly speaking to each other first, it can help break the ice between students and initiate natural conversation. By exploring different communication techniques using puppets, students can apply the same to regular conversations. Puppets can help break down barriers and encourage pupils to discuss very difficult issues such as bullying, abuse, drugs, and cultural